


I Met Her One Night at the Coffee Shop (Her Face so Bright, My Heart Just Stopped)

by ifwallscouldspeak



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: (They Just Love Teasing Karen About Claire), Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Matt and Foggy Ain't Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-12 06:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13541331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ifwallscouldspeak/pseuds/ifwallscouldspeak
Summary: No matter what time Claire comes in - always overworked, overtired, and underpaid - during her shift, the cute blonde barista is always there.(Inspired by the prompt, “It’s two sugars, right?”)





	I Met Her One Night at the Coffee Shop (Her Face so Bright, My Heart Just Stopped)

**Author's Note:**

> I obviously have no idea how emergency rooms work trtethtrhryru sorry about that. 
> 
> Title from "Missy" by the Airborne Toxic Event. 
> 
> Written for my personal [Femslash February](http://lo-cotidiano.tumblr.com/tagged/jennifer+does+femslash+february) challenge :)

+++

 

Claire first stumbles into the Starbucks at four in the morning after a particularly grueling shift in the emergency room. Two gunshot wounds, one false labor, three burst appendices, and an older gentleman who reeked of whiskey and had walking pneumonia. She’d barely made it out of Metro-General and down the block, she was so goddamn exhausted.

Even worse, she only has fifteen minutes for this particular break. Damn her and her bleeding heart, promising Hazel that she’d do a double so Hazel could host a sleepover for her daughter’s friends. Shirley had just raised an eyebrow and shaken her head when she approved that one.

Though she hates Starbucks on principal - there’s one on either corner of her block now, and one right next to that Whole Foods monstrosity, fucking gentrifiers - she needs caffeine and she needs it stat. And tonight, she deserves more than that slop they try to pass off onto worried patients and their families in the hospital vending machines. So when she sees the clean white sign on the door, proudly announcing that the location is open 24/7, she knows it's something like fate. She feels for the workers, she really does; she can only hope that they’re at least getting shift differential.

When Claire gets to the counter she leans against it heavily and calls to a female barista cleaning out a blender.

“Hey, sorry to bother you, but lemme get a tall blonde roast, with three espresso shots?” she calls.

The barista turns around, her blonde hair swinging slightly in its ponytail. The first thing Claire notices are her wide, beautiful eyes; the second thing is the concerned, and then slightly horrified, look on her face as she stares at Claire. Claire has to glance down for a moment, worried that her scrubs are blood-spattered or something. But besides a strip of surgical tape on her sleeve, she's pretty much fine.

“That much caffeine will probably make your heart go into shock,” the woman says.

Clair notices she has a nametag on that says _Karen_ , a small cup of coffee with a smiley face drawn next to it. She would comment on how adorable that is, if she were in a more lively state of mind.

“I know what I’m about, son,” she says instead, strangely doing a Ron Swanson impression.

Karen the barista grins at that. “I guess you’d know best, Doc.”

“Nurse, actually,” Claire says.

“Does this nurse have a name?” Karen asks. Her voice sounds teasing and tired, too.

“Claire.”

After Karen’s done making her drink and she passes it over, their fingers touch, just briefly. Karen’s skin is warm and soft and when Claire looks up, she swears that she sees a blush pass over Karen’s cheeks. A smile plays on Karen’s mouth as she ducks her head down, just slightly. Claire wants to lean forward and bite it off of her face, lips melting into lips and fingers pulling up the ugly green apron. Instead - because she’s not a fucking creep - she thanks Karen and heads back to the hospital.

She finds herself going back to the Starbucks three, sometimes four nights a week. She tells herself it’s because it’s the only thing open and the coffee isn’t that expensive, you know, if she brings peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner every night. She staunchly ignores the little voice in her head saying  _you're only going back night after night to see Karen_ by reasoning that it’s not like she’s going there at any set time to stalk her or something. It just happens to work out that Karen’s always the one who takes her order. No matter what time Claire comes in - always overworked, overtired, and underpaid - during her shift, the cute blonde barista is always there.

And each time that they talk a little more, Claire finds herself stretching her break out. First five minutes more, then ten minutes extra, until one night Jeremy actually texts her and asks, _did you die on your way to getting my venti macchiato?_

Every time she sees Karen laugh or her eyes sparkle with another question or she shares a little bit more about herself, it’s on the tip of Claire’s tongue to ask her out. _What do you say to grabbing coffee that’s not pre-processed by the monster corporation you work for?_ But she never does, because she knows how awkward it is, how horrible it can be, to have a cool camaraderie with a regular patient only to have them try and hit on her or ask her out. As she’s told those creeps hundreds of times, _head’s up, it’s better if you don’t ask someone out when they’re at work and can’t run away from your advances, thanks_.

Besides, she’s not even sure that Karen is into women. The one time Karen’d brought up an ex, she’d used gender-neutral language.

“My partner at the time never got my coffee order right, ironically enough,” she’d said. “Too much milk and no sugar. I’ve been taking no milk, two sugars my whole life.”

It’s almost two months later when there’s a role-reversal.

Karen bursts through the doors of the E.R., a heavily bleeding man between her and another guy with long hair. The guy in the middle is talking a mile a minute, complaining, while Karen snaps at him. Claire, who’d been at the nurse’s station laughing with Hazel, only realizes it’s her when Karen calls out her name. Claire’s head snaps up and she rushes over to them, calling out for a few of the other nurses to help them.

“Karen?” Claire asks. “What happened?”

The man in the middle groans. “Nothing happened -”

The man on the right speaks right over him. “Our friend decided to go vigilante on us and tried to beat up some guy in the street -”

“He was trying to mug someone, Foggy!” the man in the middle protests.

“He had a knife, hotshot!”

It's somewhat belatedly that Claire realizes these must be the best friends Karen's always talking about, Matt and Foggy. Claire wants to ask her if she's alright; but Karen't doesn't look afraid at all, just fed the fuck up. Claire shouts orders at the other nurses, who drag Matt behind a curtain and onto one of the beds. Hazel’s already asking him about any pre-existing conditions and wrapping the curtain closed behind them. Karen sighs, something soft and annoyed, as she drags her hand across her forehead. She looks more tired than Claire’s ever seen at Starbucks, but no less beautiful.

Shit, she’s got to get her head in the game -

“Oh, so you’re Claire,” Foggy says slyly. “I can see why Karen loves working the night shift so mu -”

“Foggy!” Karen snaps, red staining her cheeks.

“I’m Foggy Nelson, avocado at law,” Foggy says, grinning at Claire.

“Abogado,” Claire corrects immediately. "Hi."

“Foggy!” Karen repeats.

“What?”

“Why don’t you - just go get us some coffee, or something,” Karen says, still flushing.

Claire says, looking between the two friends, “there’s a vending machine down the hall and around the corner.”

“Thanks,” Foggy says. “How do you want yours, Karen?”

Before Claire can stop herself, her lips are moving. “It’s two sugars, right? And no milk.”

A smile grows on Karen’s face. It’s soft and intimate and makes Claire’s heart thud behind her ribcage. She barely notices as Foggy throws her another sly look, before slinking down the hall.

“I -” Karen starts to say.

“Temple!” Hazel calls, poking her head outside the curtain. “Can you give us a hand?”

Claire startles before rushing over, embarrassed that she’s forgotten to do her fucking job. She doesn’t look back at Karen, sure that her feelings are all over her face. As she goes behind the curtain, Matt is batting away Hazel’s hands, trying to get a flashlight  beam out of his face. Claire feels her back straighten and she goes right into nurse mode, trying to keep her crush and her leaky feelings behind her for the moment. 

“When I said ‘I’m blind,’ I didn’t mean from that guy’s beating,” he’s saying.

“Well, maybe if you had been more forthcoming with information in the first place - ” Hazel starts.

“Alright, no bickering with the patients,” Claire snaps on some rubber gloves. “And you, no agitating my nurses.”

Matt smiles. “Ah, Claire Temple.”

“The one and only,” Claire says.

His voice goes unusually loud. “Karen talks about you all the time, you know.”

Claire tries not to let her face heat up. “Does she?”

From behind the curtain, Karen practically screeches, “Matt Murdock!”

“She wanted to give you her phone number by writing it on one of your coffee cups,” Matt says, voice still loud and just the slightest bit mocking. “But we said that would be too corny -”

Claire’s heart stutters as the other nurses all begin to smirk at her. Matt’s smile cocks up slightly, almost like he can hear her heartbeat and how erratic it is right now. Behind the curtain, Karen lets out a spring of expletives, colorful enough that it definitely has Claire surprised.

“You know what, I’m sure he’s fine,” Karen shouts over Matt’s voice. “Actually, I think he’d prefer if we just left him on the street to bleed to death -”

“Don’t be embarrassed, Karen,” Matt calls back. "Claire obviously wants your number as badly as you want hers. It’s all over her face.”

The other nurses have started snickering and Claire reminds herself of the Hippocratic Oath. It would be immoral and illegal to stab her patient full of painkillers so that he’ll either shut up or go to sleep. When she spares a glance at him, he’s shooting a shit-eating grin right at her face, and she wonders how blind this guy could really be, honestly.

She glares back at him before digging her cell phone out of the pocket of her scrubs. Then she jerks the curtain back, where Karen is still standing. Her face is adorably red and she’s obviously fuming, muttering death threats at her friend. She stops when she sees Claire’s face and her phone, outstretched in her hand.

“Here,” Claire says.

Karen’s face gets even redder. “Claire, I -”

“I like you, Karen,” Claire says, smiling. “And I’d like to take you out. Somewhere that’s not your job or mine, especially somewhere that doesn’t have a thousand of my coworkers and your annoying friends around.”

Karen’s face blossoms into a grin, and she places her hand over Claire’s. Even through the rubber gloves, Claire feels an electric shock as Karen gently takes her phone.

“That would be -” Karen’s smile turns a bit shy. “I would love that.”

Foggy turns up, looking like he’s trying to juggle four cups of coffee and a bunch of protein bars. His face lights up as he stares at Karen pulling away, Claire’s cell in her hands.

“You owe me twenty bucks, Matt!” he singsongs.

“You said it would happen in the Starbucks, so technically you owe me twenty bucks!” Matt yells back.

Claire rolls her eyes, staring up at the ceiling. Karen turns, giving him a death glare, and starts hissing something.

If, minutes later, Claire stabs Matt a little bit less kindly than usual when she stitches the cut across his chest, neither of them say anything. He just gives her another grin. She tells herself that she does not giddly smile back.

 

+++


End file.
